JX 

5371 
A3 


IC-NRLF 


SB 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOE, 


NEUTRALITY  IN  AMERICA 


AN    ADDRESS    DELIVERED  BEFORE   THE 


NEW  YOEK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 


SIXTY-SIXTH  ANNIVERSARY, 
DECEMBER  13,  1870, 


CHAELES  FRANCIS  ADAMS. 


NEW  YORK : 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER    AND    CO., 

054    BROADWAY. 
1371. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Con-Tress,  in  the  year  1371,  by 

THE  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


THE    NEW-YOB K   I' HINTING   COM  PA  NT, 
20,r>-213  EAST  TWELFTH  STRKET. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 

1871. 


PRESIDENT, 

THOMAS    DE    WITT,    D.D. 

FIRST    VICE-PRESIDENT, 

AUGUSTUS    SCHELL. 

SECOND    VICE-PRESIDENT, 

ERASTUS    C.    BENEDICT,    LL.D. 

FOREIGN  CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY, 

WILLIAM    CULLEN   BRYANT,  LL.D 

DOMESTIC    CORRESPONDING   SECRETARY, 

WILLIAM    J.    HOPPIN. 

RECORDING    SECRETARY, 

ANDREW  WARNER. 

TREASURER, 

BENJAMIN    H.    FIELD. 

LIBRARIAN, 

GEORGE    H.   MOORE,    LL.D. 


COMMITTEE  OF  ARRANGEMENTS 

FOR    THK 

SIXTY- SIX TH  ANNIYERSA  R  Y. 


CHARLES  P.  KIRKLAND,  "  WILLIAM  T.  BLODGETT, 

BENJAMIN  H.  FIELD,  ANDREW  WARNER, 

GEORGE  II,   MOORE. 


ADDRESS. 


You  have  honored  me  with  an  invitation  to  occupy 
a  position  which  has  been  successively  held  by  many 
of  the  most  eminent  men  of  your  own  State,  and  also 
of  other  States.  I  accept  it  with  distrust,  not  less  of 
my  ability  to  reach  the  high  standard  attained  by 
them,  than  by  reason  of  my  disuse  of  the  habit  of 
public  speaking.  It  is  not  easy  for  one  long  obliged 
to  school  himself  to  the  rule  of  saying  as  little  as  pos 
sible  to  be  heard  out  of  doors,  to  make  an  immediate 
transition,  and  expose  with  freedom  all  that  he  may 
think  upon  a  given  subject.  Yet  I  confess  I  know  of 
no  stronger  temptation  that  could  have  been  offered 
to  me  to  make  the  effort  than  this,  as  well  on  account 
of  the  kind  feeling  that  appears  to  have  prompted  the 
call,  as  of  the  legitimate  opening  it  affords  to  the 
indulgence  of  my  favorite  line  of  speculation. 

I  purpose,  therefore,  without  further  preface,  to 
enter  at  once  upon  my  subject — to  devote  the  brief 
period  to  which  I  hope  to  confine  my  draught  on  your 
attention  to  the  consideration  of  a  single  topic  in  the 
past  history  of  the  country.  I  refer  to  the  establish- 


2 

ment  of  the  great  general  principle  of  international 

(law — that  a  nation  has  a  right  to  be  neutral  in  times 
of  war,  if  it  so  pleases.  I  think  the  world  owres  the 
practical  adoption  of  this  principle  mainly  to  the  long 
and  painful  struggles  of  the  Government  of  the  Uni 
ted  States.  It  will  be  my  object  on  the  present  occa 
sion,  by  a  rapid  review  of  the  chief  events  connected 
with  it,  to  show  how  it  was  brought  about. 

I  think  it  not  unlikely  that  this  statement  may  at 
first  cause  a  little  surprise.  Some  of  you  may  at  once 
appeal  to  the  learned  work  of  one  of  the  most  emi 
nent  writers  of  your  own  State — Mr.  Henry  "Wheaton 
— a  work  now  recognized  as  of  general  authority  over 
the  civilized  world,  and  of  which  I  feel  proud  to  say 
that  I  possess  a  copy  rendered  into  Chinese,  although 
I  cannot  read  a  word  of  it — and  quote  a  rule  laid 
down  by  him  in  the  following  terms  : 

"  The  right  of  every  independent  State  to  remain 
at  peace  while  other  States  are  engaged  in  wrar,  is  an 
incontestable  attribute  of  sovereignty." 

To  which  I  reply,  that  this  may  indeed  be  affirmed 
to  be  true  now,  but  it  was  not  true  prior  to  the  strug 
gle  that  we  as  a  nation  went  through  to  sustain  it. 
It  is  on  all  hands  conceded  that  in  ancient  times  what 
is  signified  by  the  term  neutrality  did  not  exist,  for 
there  is  no  word  known  to  express  the  idea.  Greece 
and  Koine  knew  nothing  of  it.  Even  down  to  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  of  our  era,  though 
many  writers  had  come  forward  to  contribute  their 


valuable  labors  towards  framing  a  system  of  in 
ternational  law,  and  had  clearly  succeeded  in  making 
this  idea  understood,  the  thing  itself,  considered  as 
an  absolute  right  in  a  nation,  which  belligerents 
were  bound  to  respect,  was  by  no  means  generally 
recognized.  The  eminent  author,  Wolff,  in  treating 
of  it,  considers  it  so  doubtful,  that  he  recommends 
it  to  nations  to  obtain  greater  security  by  special 
treaties  of  guaranty.  Thus,  from  a  right,  it  sinks 
at  once  into  a  privilege.  And,  in  point  of  fact,  Euro 
pean  nations  have  seldom  been  able  to  sustain  them 
selves  in  any  other  way.  The  weaker  powers,  some 
of  them  composing  geographical  barriers  between  the 
stronger,  are  protected  by  guaranty ;  or  if  not,  by  the 
fact  of  their  insignificance.  But  even  these,  in  times 
of  long  and  heated  strife,  have  rarely  succeeded  in 
getting  their  neutrality  respected. 

The  object,  then,  that  I  aim  at  is  to  show  that,  for 
the  first  time  in  history,  the  Government  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  at  an  early  period  of  its  existence,  laid 
down  this  principle,  defined  by  Mr.  Wheaton  as  a  car 
dinal  maxim  of  its  policy.  Weak  as  it  was  at  first  on 
the  ocean,  and  protected  on  land  only  by  its  partial 
insulation,  it  deliberately  advanced  the  doctrine  that 
neutrality  in  all  wars  was  its  right  as  well  as  its 
duty.  But  Mr.  Wheaton  calls  this  right  "  incontesta 
ble."  To  which  I  can  only  reply,  that  for  a  period  of 
twenty  years — quite  a  fifth  of  a  century  in  our  his 
tory — it  was  not  only  contestable,  but  contested,  and, 


towards  tlie  end,  established  only  at  the  cost  of  war 
itself. 

"We  all  know  how  matters  stood  in  America  at  the 
time  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted.  The  revo 
lutionary  struggle  had  been  over  six  years,  but  we 
were  neither  happy  nor  quiet.  Liberty  was  fast  run 
ning  into  license,  and  law  was  yielding  to  the  stern 
dictation  of  despairing  poverty.  It  was  at  this  mo 
ment  that  a  remedy  for  these  evils  was  voluntarily 
devised,  and  Washington  was  summoned  by  acclama 
tion  to  preside  over  the  new  experiment.  It  was  soon 
perceived  to  be  working  like  a  charm.  Aided  by 
eminent  counsellors,  the  marvellous  offspring  of  the 
grand  conflict  for  our  rights,  industry  revived,  and 
commerce  once  more  spread  her  white  wings  over  the 
ocean.  Thus  passed  the  greater  part  of  the  first  term 
of  Washington's  Administration.  Peace  prevailed 
over  the  land,  and,  although  grave  differences  of  opin 
ion  were  developed  in  regard  to  many  details,  they 
served  rather  to  help  perfect  than  to  impair  the  ulti 
mate  working  of  the  machine.  It  was  just  at  this 
moment  that  a  great  catastrophe  took  place  far  away 
in  foreign  lands,  which  shook  by  its  force  the  old 
est  sovereignties  in  Europe,  and  for  a  time  materially 
endangered  the  edifice  just  raised  in  America.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  say,  that  this  was  the  great 
French  revolution  which  began  to  pull  down  just  at 
the  date  when  we  were  engaged  in  building  up. 

It  soon  became  obvious,  from   the  complications 


fast  multiplying-  with  the  nations  bordering  on  France, 
that  some  policy  was  to  be  matured  by  the  executive 
head  in  order  to  provide  for  contingencies  that  might 
involve  America  at  any  moment.  The  people  were 
all  alive,  awaiting  with  breathless  interest  the  devel 
opment  of  what  they  fondly  hoped  would  prove  a 
new  era  of  liberty.  Their  gratitude  for  the  aid  so 
decisively  rendered  in  their  own  struggle  combined 
with  their  pride  in  the  success  of  their  own  experi 
ment  to  inspire  a  zeal  not  merely  of  sympathy,  but  for 
cooperation.  A  great  many  similar  events  have  since 
happened,  both  in  the  same  and  in  other  countries, 
which  have  been  viewed  with  comparative  indiffer 
ence.  Even  though  the  uprising  was  attended  with 
extraordinary  violence,  and  blood  was  shed  like  water, 
whilst  the  mild  and  innocent  monarch  was  made  to 
atone  by  his  head  for  the  sins  of  three  generations 
before  him,  these  incidents,  though  shocking  to  many, 
did  not  seem  materially  to  damp  the  ardor  of  the  gen 
eral  enthusiasm.  Civic  feasts  were  the  order  of  the 
day.  Oxen  were  roasted  in  the  streets ;  flags  of  the 
two  nations,  entwined  together  everywhere,  were  the 
symbols  of  what  wras  to  be  a  more  perfect  union  ;  and 
from  all  quarters  the  acclamations  of  thousands  rose 
to  the  skies  in  admiration  of  the  event  which  was 
about  to  restore  paradise  on  earth. 

In  the  midst  of  such  a  formidable  demonstration 
the  question  was  pressing  upon  the  attention  of  Wash 
ington,  how  this  sudden  phenomenon  was  likely  to 


6 

bear  upon  tlie  new  machinery  he  had  been  selected  to 
put  in  motion.  Upon  the  Executive  particularly  de 
volved  the  establishment  of  relations  with  nations 
abroad.  What  was  he  to  do  in  the  complications 
which  were  already  making  their  appearance  all  over 
Europe  ?  The  case  was  a  difficult  one.  He  had  thus 
far  been  called  to  organize  only  the  customary  forms 
of  intercourse.  The  news  of  the  mission  of  an  envoy 
from  the  young  Republic  raised  important  questions 
for  which  it  was  proper  to  be  at  once  prepared. 

And  here  let  me  for  a  moment  stop  the  thread  of 
my  subject  to  make  one  observation  upon  the  peculiar 
responsibility  which  rests  upon  the  head  of  a  nation 
in  its  relations  with  external  powers.  It  is  of  a  na 
ture  which  can  never  be  shared  by  the  people  at 
large.  Collectively,  a  people  feel  more  than  they  rea 
son,  and  they  are  never  in  a  condition  to  act  at  once. 
They  are,  moreover,  particularly  prone  to  be  swept  by 
sudden  passion  towards  wrar,  especially  if  instigated 
by  the  cunning  devices  of  plausible  leaders.  It  is  far 
more  easy,  therefore,  for  a  demagogue  to  stimulate 
them  to  a  fatal  course,  than  for  a  statesman  to  pre 
serve  a  power  of  restraint  which  will  secure  a  happy 
result.  Hence  it  follows,  that  according  to  the  action 
of  a  public  man,  placed  in  a  position  of  the  highest 
responsibility,  is  he  to  be  held  worthy  of  honor,  if  he 
controls  the  tendencies  which  may  be  fatal  to  their 
welfare,  or  to  be  condemned  if  he  weakly  or  wickedly 
lets  them  go  on  to  their  destruction.  There  are  many 


cases  in  which  this  responsibility  cannot  be  shared. 
Let  me  illustrate  ray  idea  by  an  example  or  two. 

You  have  still  living  within  the  borders  of  your 
noble  State  one  citizen  to  whom  I  trust  I  may  ven 
ture,  in  passing,  to  allude.  When,  in  the  fearful 
struggle  from  which  we  have  happily  emerged,  a  gal 
lant  naval  officer,  zealous  to  distinguish  his  loyalty, 
ventured  upon  the  bold  step  of  seizing  a  vessel  be 
longing  to  a  proud  nation  then  in  a  state  of  peace 
with  all  the  world,  and  taking  from  her  by  force  two 
men  justly  odious  to  the  people  by  their  share  in  the 
rank  treason  which  conspired  to  overthrow  our  Gov 
ernment  ;  and  when  the  authorities  of  that  nation, 
appealing  for  the  first  time  to  the  very  doctrines  of 
neutral  rights  which  it  had  ever  before  been  our  duty 
to  maintain  against  her  when  she  was  a  belligerent, 
formally  demanded  of  us  reparation  for  the  insult  and 
the  restoration  of  those  odious  men,  from  one  end  of 
the  country  to  the  other  the  loyal  and  the  patriotic, 
oblivious  of  the  honorable  record  of  the  past,  and 
mindful  only  of  the  opportunity  for  present  vengeance, 
flew  to  the  precedents  which  belligerent  law  could 
furnish  to  defend  the  act,  called  with  one  voice  for  the 
highest  honors  to  the  brave  officer  who  did  the  deed, 
and  insisted  above  all  upon  the  retention  of  the  trai 
tors  at  any  cost.  Such  was  the  passion  of  the  hour, 
that  it  invaded  even  the  most  elevated  stations,  and 
prompted  hasty  approbation  from  the  head  of  the  De 
partment  himself.  It  seemed  as  if  there  were  no  chance 


8 

left  of  escaping  a  collision  in  which  the  united  voice 
of  all  civilized  nations  would  have  justly  pronounced 
us  in  the  wrong.  It  wras  precisely  in  that  critical  mo 
ment  that  the  statesman  to  whom  I  allude,  calm  in 
council,  sagacious  in  action,  and  fearless  of  censure 
when  an  emergency  was  to  be  met,  was  called  upon  to 
prepare  the  response  in  behalf  of  the  Government. 
He  deliberately  assumed  the  responsibility  of  adher 
ing  to  the  precedents  so  honorably  established  in  ear 
lier  times,  and  of  recommending  a  retraction  of  the 
error,  and  a  surrender  of  the  men ;  and  his  decision 
was  finally  adopted  by  the  President.  I  do  not  feel 
that  I  am  exaggerating,  when  I  claim  for  this  coura 
geous  resistance  to  the  infatuation  of  the  hour,  that  it 
not  only  was  correct  in  principle,  but  also  that  it  saved 
the  unity  of  the  nation.  The  two  men  were  surren 
dered.  They  forthwith  fell  into  obscurity.  Where 
are  they  now  ?  Who  knows  ? — and,  I  will  add,  Who 
cares  ?  Yet  it  was  for  the  possession  of  twro  such  men 
unjustly  taken  that  we  encountered  the  most  perilous 
hazard  of  the  war.  If  the  illustrious  statesman  who 
saved  us  from  that  folly  had  never  done  other  ser 
vice  to  his  country  in  his  life,  for  that  alone  he  earned 
• — though  I  know  not  whether  he  will  receive — the 
undying  gratitude  of  his  country. 

So  much  for  one  mode  of  redeeming  responsibility 
in  high  station.  Shall  I  reverse  the  picture,  and  point 
out  another  ?  Yes.  Look  at  France,  as  she  lies  pant 
ing  and  bloody,  enduring  the  last  agony  of  national 


mortification.  Who  is  it  that  has  done  this  deed,  and 
suddenly  plunged  her  from  the  pinnacle  of  fortune 
into  this  profound  abyss  ?  Behold  the  man  arriving 
at  absolute  power  by  perjury  and  fraud,  yet  fully  con 
doned  by  the  general  suffrage  of  a  too  facile  people, 
instead  of  fulfilling  the  main  duty  of  his  trust — the 
preservation  of  peace  to  a  happy  land— plunging 
headlong  into  conflict  with  a  neighboring  power  upon 
a  doubtful  issue  in  the  sovereignty  of  a  country  over 
which  he  held  110  sway.  The  pretence  for  this  hazard 
ous  step  was,  that  the  popular  feeling  in  France  was 
too  strong  to  be  resisted.  Had  that  unhappy  chief 
only  possessed  the  courage  to  seize  the  single  moment 
of  concession  which  might  have  saved  the  national 
honor,  too  rashly  compromised  at  first,  and  thus  pre 
served  the  peace  for  his  people,  they  might  indeed  in 
their  anger  have  pulled  him  down  from  his  high  es 
tate  ;  but  in  such  a  fall,  attended  by  such  salvation  to 
them,  he  might  have  attained  a  moral  elevation  much 
higher  than  he  ever  knew  in  his  days  of  power.  In 
stead  of  which,  he  now  stands  before  our  gaze  as  de 
serting  his  post  on  the  first  great  disaster  in  the  field, 
and  flying  for  safety  to  lay  his  head  in  the  lap  of  the 
enemy  he  had  provoked.  From  his  princely  prison  he 
has  the  leisure  to  comprehend  how  chance  and  fate 
rule  exclusively  over  the  distracted  counsels  of  the 
people  he  has  betrayed,  and  to  observe  the  wheels 
of  the  conqueror  steadily  rolling  over  the  necks  of 
the  multitude  whom  he  has  destroyed.  Verily,  verily, 


10    . 

"better  had  it.  been  for  him.  to  have  perished  on  the 
scaffold  a  thousandfold,  than,  "by  pusillanimity  like 
this,  record  his  everlasting  dishonor  on  the  most  hu 
miliating  page  in  the  history  of  the  nation ! 

"With  this  illustration  of  the  portentous  nature  of 
the  responsibility  inseparably  attached  to  the  Execu 
tive  agency  of  a  State  in  its  foreign  relations,  I  now 
return  to  the  consideration  of  the  position  of  Wash 
ington  when  he  was  summoned,  by  the  great  uprising 
in  France,  to  decide  for  the  infant  Government  what 
position  to  take  in  the  complications  visibly  to  ensue. 
It  was  not  merely  a  single  emergency  he  was  to  meet, 
as  in  the  examples  I  have  cited,  but  his  duty  extended 
to  the  formation  of  a  policy  to  stretch  into  the  future 
far  beyond  the  days  of  the  youngest  living  genera 
tion.  The  strongest  evidence  of  his  own  sense  of  the 
importance  of  his  action  is  found  in  the  fact  that  he 
carefully  prepared  a  series  of  sixteen  questions,  which 
he  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the  four  members 
of  his  Cabinet,  for  their  advice.  To  that  council  he 
had  carefully  elected  two  of  the  ablest  and  best-quali 
fied  statesmen  that  the  great  struggle  for  liberty  had 
produced,  the  only  drawback  to  which  was  the  mis 
fortune  that  they  scarcely  ever  could  agree.  The  one, 
abounding  in  capacity,  leaned  to  speculation  and  the 
ory,  to  which  he  sought  to  accommodate  facts;  the 
other,  equally  gifted,  preferred  to  view  the  facts  first, 
and  from  them  form  his  theories  afterwards.  The 
first  had  a  synthetic,  the  other  an  analytic  mind. 


11 

The  former  would  have  "been  best  fitted  to  preside 
over  a  society  of  distinguished  philosophers ;  the  lat- 
ter's  province  would  have  been  to  marshal  armed 
squadrons  on  the  battle-field.  Yet  between  these  dis 
cordant  elements  it  was  the  peculiar  faculty  of  Wash 
ington  to  be  able  to  educe  from  each  most  valuable 
contributions  to  the  regulation  of  his  policy.  They 
never  served  him  better  than  in  the  present  emergen 
cy.  The  sixteen  questions  were  submitted  on  the  18th 
of  April,  1793.  On  the  next  day  all  four  of  the  Cab 
inet  had  united  in  an  affirmative  answer  to  the  first, 
which  was  the  essential  one.  It  ran  in  the  following 
words : 

"  Shall  a  proclamation  issue  for  the  purpose  of  pre 
venting  interferences  of  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  in  the  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain  ? " 

Another  question — whether  the  Minister  known 
to  be  on  his  way  out  as  a  representative  from  the 
new  Kepublic  should  be  received — was  also  unani 
mously  agreed  to. 

And  here  the  President  was  fain  to  stop ;  for  the 
opposing  forces,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  fell  into  such 
differences  upon  the  remaining  questions,  that  it  was 
weeks  before  they  got  through  their  expositions.  This 
was  of  no  consequence,  as  from  the  one  answer  he 
laid  the  great  foundation  of  his  policy.  A  procla 
mation  was  immediately  drawn  up  and  issued  on  the 
22d  of  April,  1793.  The  substantial  part  was  in 
these  words : 


12 

"  Whereas,  it  appears  that  a  state  of  war  exists 
"between  Austria,  Prussia,  Sardinia,  Great  Britain,  and 
the  United  Netherlands  on  the  one  part,  and  France 
on  the  other ;  and  the  duty  and  interest  of  the  United 
States  require  that  they  should  with  sincerity  and 
good  faith  adopt  and  pursue  a  conduct  friendly  and 
impartial  towards  the  belligerent  powers :  I  have  there 
fore  thought  fit,  by  these  presents,  to  declare  the  dis 
position  of  the  United  States  to  observe  the  conduct 
aforesaid  towards  those  powers  respectively,  and  to 
exhort  and  warn  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
carefully  to  avoid  all  acts  and  proceedings  whatsoever 
which  may  in  any  manner  tend  to  contravene  such  dis 
position." 

It  is  to  be  particularly  observed,  that  throughout 
[  this  paper  the  true  object  for  which  it  was  issued  was 
not  declared.  There  is  no  collective  generalization, 
the  true  word  for  which  is  neutrality.  The  cause  was 
this :  Mr.  Jefferson  doubted  whether  the  Constitution 
had  given  the  President  the  power  to  declare  neutral 
ity,  as  it  was  certain  that  he  had  not  the  power  to  de 
clare  war.  But  he  was  in  favor  of  the  thing.  The 
consequence  was,  that  the  President  very  quietly 
directed  the  word  to  be  stricken  out  of  the  first  draft, 
and  let  it  stand  in  the  circumlocution  of  "  conduct 
friendly  and  impartial  towards  the  belligerent  pow 
ers,"  and  "  the  conduct  aforesaid."  But  nobody  was 
deceived  as  to  what  this  meant  from  that  day  to  this. 
The  President  did  proclaim  a  policy,  and  Mr.  Jeifer- 


13 

son  knew  the  fact  perfectly  well ;  at  the  same  time, 
his  scruple  of  conscience  was  respected,  as  it  should 
have  been.  But  it  was  neutrality  for  all  that. 

At  the  subsequent  session  of  Congress,  which  met 
on  the  2d  of  December,  the  President,  in  his  Message, 
communicated  to  both  Houses  the  fact  of  what  he  had 
done,  and  transmitted  a  copy  of  his  proclamation  ;  but 
in  that  paper  too  it  may  be  seen  that  the  word  "  neu 
trality"  nowhere  appears.  Such  juggles  in  words 
have  not  been  uncommon  in  our  history ! 

This  important  step  was  not  taken  a  bit  too  soon ; 
for  now  the  pinch  of  a  severe  struggle  in  behalf  of 
what  had  been  done  was  at  hand.  It  was  well  known 
that  a  diplomatic  envoy  had  been  commissioned  by 
the  new  French  Republic,  and  was  on  his  way  to 
America.  The  President  had  been  advised  by  his 
Cabinet  to  receive  him  at  once  on  his  arrival.  But 
neither  he  nor  they  had  any  idea  that  the  chief  object 
of  the  new  mission  would  be  to  break  up  the  very 
policy  just  formally  proclaimed.  The  chief  directors 
of  that  changing  era  of  French  politics  were  looking 
to  this  country  for  aid  in  their  conflict  with  all  Europe, 
and  especially  on  the  ocean,  where  they  were  conduct 
ing  an  unequal  fight  with  Great  Britain.  To  that  end 
they  had,  in  appealing  to  the  old  alliance  of  IT 7 8, 
meditated  to  propose  some  form  of  convention  by 
which,  in  consideration  of  an  exclusive  privilege  of 
trade  in  the  ports  of  each  other,  making  a  practical 
monopoly  of  their  carrying-trade  for  us,  we  might  be 


14 

tempted  to  enter  into  a  union  which,  however  it  might 
have  been  worded,  must  inevitably  have  made  us,  in 
the  end,  a  party  to  the  war. 

This  scheme  was  not  altogether  ill-contrived.  The 
popular  current  in  favor  of  France  was  at  the  moment 
running  mountain-high  all  over  America,  and  even  in 
the  Cabinet  of  Washington  it  had  its  most  earnest 
sympathizer  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  Though 
honestly  in  favor  of  preserving  neutrality  as  long  as 
possible,  he  held  doubts — and  not  without  good  rea 
son — of  our  ability  to  preserve  it  against  the  feebly- 
disguised  ill-will  of  Great  Britain ;  and,  in  the  event 
of  a  rupture,  his  disposition  prompted  a  close  union 
with  France.  Neither  was  "Washington  himself  by 
any  means  averse  to  this  policy,  in  the  last  resort.  A 
good  field  was  therefore  fairly  open  to  the  labors  of 
the  new  envoy  at  the  moment  it  was  announced  that 
he  had  landed  from  a  French  frigate  at  Charleston,  in 
South  Carolina. 

And  here  I  ask  your  pardon  for  stopping  again  for 
the  purpose  of  making  a  single  observation.  In  the 
relations  between  nations  it  is  not  quite  enough  for  a 
Government  to  devise  forms  of  policy  and  direct  nego 
tiations.  However  excellent  they  may  be  in  the  ab 
stract,  and  however  likely  to  insure  a  favorable  result, 
if  the  organ  of  communication  be  not  also  well  adapt 
ed  to  promote  the  object,  the  issue  will  surely  disap 
point  expectations.  This  remark,  true  in  a  degree 
even  now,  was  very  much  more  so  in  former  days, 


15 

when  the  telegraph  was  not  at  hand  to  vary  instruc 
tions,  remove  sudden  obstacles,  and  rectify  casual 
errors,  A  signal  example  of  its  truth  is  given  in  the 
conduct  of  Mr.  Genest,  the  new'  French  Minister.  He 
was  quite  a  young  man,  not  more  than  twenty-seven, 
had  been  well  trained  by  his  father  in  the  Foreign 
Office,  under  the  monarchy,  and  had  entered  the  diplo 
matic  service  at  St.  Petersburg  through  the  influence 
of  his  sisters,  who  were  in  the  household  of  Queen 
Marie  Antoinette.  But  he  had  imbibed  such  heated 
Eepublican  sentiments,  that,  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Eevolution,  the  Kussian  Government  seized  an 
early  opportunity  to  furnish  him  with  his  passports  to 
return  to  Paris.  This  event  probably  recommended 
him  the  more  to  the  Republicans,  who  had  now  come 
into  power,  and  particularly  pointed  him  out  as  a  suit 
able  agent  to  serve  their  objects  in  republican  Amer 
ica  !  That  it  was  intended  he  should  act  as  a  fire 
brand,  there  can  be  little  doubt ;  but  that  he  should 
run  the  career  which  he  actually  did,  was  by  no  means 
in  their  contemplation.  In  the  year  1793,  to  go  from 
Paris  to  Philadelphia,  by  the  way  of  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  was  certainly  not  less  out  of  the  way 
than  it  would  be  now  to  go  from  here  to  London  - 
by  way  of  Rio  Janeiro.  There  could  have  been  but 
one  object  in  this  detour  ;  that  was,  to  try  the  temper 
of  the  population  before  going  to  the  Government. 
If  such  was  the  case,  nothing  could  have  been  more 
satisfactory  to  him.  He  was  received  at  Charleston 


16 

with,  all  the  attentions  which  could  have  been  paid  to 
the  greatest  benefactor  of  his  race,  or  military  hero; 
and  his  progress  through  the  country  to  Philadelphia 
was  one  month's  continued  ovation.  People  of  all 
conditions,  and  officers  of  State,  crowded  to  cheer  him 
on  his  way.  No  similar  spectacle  has  ever  been  seen 
in  any  country  before  or  since.  And  at  last,  when  he 
\  'reached  his  destination,  a  large  part  of  the  population 
\of  Philadelphia  rushed  out  to  meet  him  at  Gray's 
Ferry,  and  from  thence  to  escort  him  in  triumph  to 
the  city.  Mr.  Genest  was  neither  crafty,  cool,  nor  in 
sincere.  This  incense  did  for  him  what  it  has  done 
for  many  a  better  man  before  and  since  :  it  completely 
turned  his  head.  He  thought  he  had  nothing  left  to 
do  but  to  dictate  what  he  desired,  and  every  body 
would  obey.  He  began  at  once  to  deal  out  commis 
sions  to  the  right  and  left,  to  fit  out  privateers,  and 
enlist  officers  and  men ;  to  organize  Jacobin  clubs,  and 
in  every  other  respect  to  conduct  himself  in  much  the 
same  way  that  he  might  have  done  at  Paris.  Presi 
dent  Washington  received  him  with  all  proper  cour 
tesy,  and  his  Secretary  of  State  for  a  moment  seems  to 
have  cherished  visions  of  international  amity;  but 
they  were  both  rudely  wakened  from  their  repose  by 
the  complaints  of  the  British  Minister,  Mr.  Hammond, 
remonstrating  against  the  capture  of  British  vessels 
by  ships  fitted  out  from  our  ports  under  the  authority 
of  this  new  envoy.  It  was  plain  that  the  proclama 
tion  of  neutrality  had  been  trampled  in  the  dust  by 


17 

him,  and.,  that  his  insolent  assumption  of  authority 
was  fast  implicating  the  country  in  a  conflict  with 
Great  Britain. 

But  what  at  first  might  have  seemed  an  alarming 
onset,  in  jwoint  of  fact  turned  out  the  greatest  piece  of 
good  fortune.  So  outrageous  became  the  action  of 
Mr.  Genest,  so  offensive  his  mode  of  treating  the  Gov 
ernment,' that  he  began  to  fall  in  the  popular  esteem 
as  fast  as  he  had  ever  risen.  Most  especially  did  it 
place  Mr.  Jefferson,  his  most  natural  friend,  in  an  atti 
tude  in  whibh  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  disavow 
all  sympathy  whatever  with  his  proceedings.  Morti 
fying  as  it  must  have  been  to  give  up  the  policy 
which  he  had  cherished,  he  showed  no  hesitation  in 
his  course.  On  him  it  necessarily  devolved  to  con 
duct  the  official  correspondence  with  Mr.  Genest,  on 
behalf  of  the  Administration.  The  papers,  as  they 
stand  on  the  record,  tell  their  own  story.  Consider 
ing  the  sacrifice  he  had  to  make  of  all  his  cherished 
notions,  nothing  in  the  long  and  brilliant  career  of 
that  gentleman  seems  to  me  more  honorable  than 
the  way  he  acquitted  himself  on  that  occasion.  The 
conclusion  of  it  all  was,  the  utter  failure  of  the 
whole  project  of  France,  the  material  diminution  of 
the  popular  sympathy  with  that  Republic,  the  recall 
of  Mr.  Genest  in  disgrace  at  the  request  of  the  Presi 
dent,  and  the  confirmation  of  the  policy  of  neutrality 
which  this  assault  had  been  intended  to  overthrow.  A 
different  Minister,  crafty  and  imperturbable  like  Tal- 


18 

ley  rand,  might  have  made  much  more  mischief.  Genest 
was  impulsive,  "but  straightforward  in  his  action.  Yet, 
in  candor  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  result  was 
quite  as  much  due  to  his  bewildered  brain  as  to  the 
combined  sagacity  of  the  three  able  statesmen  who 
then  guided  the  American  policy. 

But  if  this  first  great  danger,  springing  from  the 
infectious  fever  of  French  solicitation,  had  been  evad 
ed,  another  immediately  followed  from  the  icy  chill 
of  British  repulsion,  not  less  alarming.  So  far  from 
seeking  a  more  intimate  alliance,  her  Government  had, 
ever  since  the  Treaty  of  Independence — a  period  of 
fall  ten  years — assumed  an  attitude  of  supercilious 
indifference  quite  as  provoking  as  any  active  hos 
tility.  For  a  long  while  she  had  not  thought  it 
worth  her  while  even  to  send  a  formal  representative  ; 
and,  after  he  came,  his  chief  business  seemed  to  be 
confined  to  the  duty  of  inditing  very  long  despatches, 
complaining  always,  and  proposing  nothing.  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  on  his  side,  returned  the  fire  of  despatches 
quite  as  ponderous  and  more  convincing,  the  end  of 
which  was,  no  progress  to  a  settlement,  and  bad  feel 
ing  growing  every  day.  The  truth  really  was,  that 
both  parties  were  almost  equally  to  blame  for  failing  in 
their  engagements  under  the  treaty ;  but  it  was  clear 
that,  if  one  did  not  show  a  disposition  to  begin  to  act, 
the  other  would  excuse  itself  for  doing  nothing.  There 
are  three  sorts  of  diplomatic  composition,  which  are 
habitually  resorted  to  in  meeting  particular  necessities : 


19 

The  first  is,  when  hostility  is  intended.  The  language 
is  then  courteous  but  short,  and  every  word  covering 
intelligible  offence.  The  second,  when  dissatisfaction  is 
to  be  expressed,  but  no  action  to  follow.  Then  the  notes 
are  apt  to  be  long  and  full  of  argument,  with  abun 
dant  citation  of  authorities,  yet  terminating  with  noth 
ing  but  assurances  of  the  highest  consideration,  &c. 
The  third  and  last  is  resorted  to  when  a  sincere  desire 
for  harmony  prevails.  Then  the  phrases  are  less 
studied  and  the  intent  more  directly  signified — the 
whole  sense  conveyed  in  brief  notes.  The  style 
adopted  by  Mr.  Hammond,  the  first  British  Minister, 
and  Mr.  Jefferson,  was,  for  the  most  part,  of  the  sec 
ond  sort.  Nothing  was  done.  So  the  old  sores  of  the 
war  continued  to  rankle,  and  events  were  taking  place 
every  day  which  were  opening  new  ones.  The  break 
ing  out  of  the  war  with  France  was  the  signal  with 
Great  Britain  for  the  issue  of  an  Order  in  Council  \ 
which  swept  at  once  a  large  number  of  our  grain-laden 
ships  into  her  ports.  On  the  other  hand,  a  British 
official  stationed  in  Canada,  carelessly  or  intentionally, 
gave  out  words  sounding  fearfully  like  instigations  to 
the  Indian  tribes  to  prepare  for  a  foray  on  the  border. 
At  this  rate  it  became  plain  that  the  bitter  feeling 
against  the  mother-country,  never  really  softened  since 
the  war,  would  soon  take  some  active  shape.  This 
spirit  showed  itself  in  Congress  by  successive  propo 
sitions,  rising  in  their  tone,  until  the  last  gravely  pro-  v 
posed  to  sequestrate  all  debts  due  to  British  subjects 


20 

as  a  security  for  satisfaction  of  our  demands.  And 
even  this  extreme  proceeding  met  with  a  degree  of 
favor  that  portended  an  early  and  violent  collision. 

At  this  critical  moment,  Washington,  who  had 
been  closely  watching  the  rise  of  the  tide  which 
threatened  an  early  fate  to  his  cherished  policy,  at 
once  determined  to  make  a  final  effort  in  its  behalf. 
He  instituted  a  special  mission  to  Great  Britain,  and, 
in  order  to  be  sure  of  his  agent,  he  nominated  an  emi 
nent  citizen  of  your  own  State — John  Jay,  then  Chief- 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and,  perhaps,  the  man 
in  all  the  United  States  who  has  come  out  of  the  fire 
of  party  trials  with  the  slightest  stain  upon  his  gar 
ments. 

It  was  a  great  stroke  of  policy,  the  force  of  which 
roused  from  its  apathy  even  the  Ministry  of  Great 
Britain.  They  began  to  show  signs  of  a  conception 
that  it  would  be  better  to  conciliate  a  power  which, 
however  insignificant  in  their  esteem,  it  was  folly 
to  leave  as  a  cat's-paw  in  the  hands  of  France.  They 
therefore  became  as  amiable  as  they  had  been  indiffer 
ent.  The  consequence  was  natural.  "When  this  hap 
pens,  the  third  style  of  correspondence  immediately 
comes  in.  From  being  long,  acrid,  and  objectless,  it  be 
comes  brief,  friendly,  and  to  the  point.  A  treaty  was 
soon  made,  and  the  policy  of  neutrality  was  once  more 
saved. 

Of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  this  famous  treaty  I 
have  no  intention,  upon  this  occasion,  to  go  into  a 


21 

general  examination.     It  is  open  to'  criticism  in  some  ) 
of  its  details,  and,  at  best,  it  cannot  "be  ranked  among 
the  triumphs  of  onr  diplomacy.     But  in  the  single 
view  in  which  I  am  considering  it  now,  as  connected 
with  a  new  system  of  international  policy,  its  value    ', 
cannot  be  exaggerated.     It  rescued  the  country  from  a 
slough  in  which  it  was  sinking,  and  where,  but  for  that, 
it  might  have  floundered  for  the  next  twenty  years. 

The  treaty  wTas  signed.  But  what  a  spectacle  fol 
lowed  !  Poor  George  "Washington !  Speaking  of 
rulers,  the  sagacious  Lord  Bacon  says  :  "  They  are  like 
heavenly  bodies,  which  cause  good  or  evil  times,  and 
which  have  much  veneration,  but  no  rest."  Passing 
over  the  dubious  astrology,  the  remark  is  emphatic 
ally  true  of  him.  He  had  had  troubles  and  discour 
agements  manifold,  especially  at  Valley  Forge.  He 
had  faced  many  a  British  array  in  Long  Island,  at 
White  Plains,  at  Momnouth,  and  at  Brandywine,  and 
often  with  but  middling  results,  but  never  before  had 
it  been  his  fortune  to  meet  with  such  a  storm  as  this. 
Always  before  he  had  to  meet  his  enemies  and  those 
of  his  country ;  now  it  was  to  meet  his  friends  and 
those  who  "  venerated  him,  but  gave  him  no  rest." 
From  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other,  on  the  re 
ceipt  of  the  details  of  the  treaty,  there  rose  one  gen 
eral  acclaim  of  indignation  and  remonstrance.  Never 
was  there  such  eager  interest  to  understand  the  par 
ticulars  of  a  negotiation,  and  never  has  there  been 
so  elaborate  a  popular  discussion  of  it  in  the  news- 


22 

papers,  in  pamphlets,  and  upon  every  public  platform. 
The  literature  connected  with  that  treaty  now  fills 
volumes  in  our  libraries.  Caius,  Canaillus,  Cato,  Cur- 
tins,  and  many  more  old  Romans,  were  called  into  the 
field  of  dispute  after  the  fashion  of  that  day,  and  each 
laid  down  the  law  after  his  own  fashion.  Every  body 
knew  all  about  it  better  than  Mr.  Jay  or  all  the 
Cabinet.  No  President  since  Washington  could  have 
stood  that  blast,  and  even  he  shook  under  it.  My 
native  city,  then  relatively  of  more  weight  in  the 
Union  than  now,  and  strongly  attached  to  him,  never 
theless  led  the  way  in  condemnation.  At  a  solemn 
town-meeting  the  people  unanimously  voted  a  resolu 
tion  assigning  twenty  distinct  reasons  against  it,  and 
embodied  the  proceedings  in  a  memorial  to  him.  The 
same  course  was  taken  in  all  the  large  towns,  and 
almost  everywhere  else.  But  it  was  in  reply  to  Bos 
ton  that  he  wrote  that  letter,  which  has  ever  since 
been  celebrated  as  a  pattern  of  modest  yet  dignified 
independence. 

"  In  every  act  of  my  administration,"  he  writes,  "  I 
have  sought  the  happiness  of  my  fellow-citizens.  My 
system  for  the  attainment  of  this  object  has  uniformly 
been  to  overlook  all  personal,  local,  and  partial  consid 
erations  ;  to  contemplate  the  United  States  as  one 
great  whole ;  to  confide  that  sudden  impressions,  when 
erroneous,  would  yield  to  candid  reflection ;  and  to 
consult  only  the  substantial  and  permanent  interests 
of  our  country. 


23 

"  Nor  have  I  departed  from  this  line  of  conduct  on 
the  occasion  which  has  produced  the  resolutions  con 
tained  in  your  letter. 

"  Without  a  predilection  for  rny  own  judgment,  I 
have  weighed  with  attention  every  argument  which 
has  at  any  time  been  "brought  into  view.  But  the 
Constitution  is  the  guide  which  I  never  can  abandon. 
It  has  assigned  to  the  President  the  power  of  making 
treaties,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate. 
It  was  doubtless  supposed  that  these  two  branches  of 
the  Government  would  combine,  without  passion  and 
with  the  best  means  of  information,  those  facts  and 
principles  upon  which  the  success  of  our  foreign  rela 
tions  will  always  depend ;  that  they  ought  not  to  sub 
stitute  for  their  own  convictions  the  opinions  of  oth 
ers,  or  to  seek  truth  through  any  channel  but  that  of 
a  temperate  and  well-informed  investigation. 

"  Under  this  persuasion,  I  have  resolved  on  the 
manner  of  executing  the  duty  before  me.  To  the 
high  responsibility  attached  to  it  I  freely  submit ;  and 
you,  gentlemen,  are  at  liberty  to  make  these  senti 
ments  known  as  the  grounds  of  my  procedure.  While 
I  feel  the  most  lively  gratitude  for  the  many  instances 
of  approbation  from  my  country,  I  can  no  otherwise 
deserve  it  than  by  obeying  the  dictates  of  my  con 


science." 


Three  quarters  of  a  century  have  passed  away 
since  this  letter  was  written,  and  now  I  do  not  believe 
one  individual  exists,  feeling  an  interest  in  Washing- 


24 

ton's  memory,  who  would  desire  a  single  word  changed 
in  it.  Its  living  force  remains  for  application  in  all 
time.  Even  in  the  heat  of  the  moment  it  did  much 
to  rally  the  spirit  of  many  who  began  to  comprehend 
the  value  of  the  object  that  he  had  staked  so  much  to 
secure.  That  object  was,  the  preservation  of  peace, 
and  the  right  to  maintain  it  irrespective  of  internecine 
struggles  going  on  in  all  the  world  beside.  The  chief 
points  of  difficulty  with  Great  Britain  had  been  dis 
posed  of,  for  some  time  at  least.  "Washington  had  tri 
umphed  over  the  belligerent  spirit  of  that  portion  of 
the  people  who  were  rushing  into  war,  and  now  he 
was  able  to  turn  his  attention  more  closely  to  the  task 
of  reuniting  the  broken  thread  of  our  relations  with 
France.  Great  was  the  responsibility,  and  nobly  did 
he  brace  himself  to  meet  it. 

And  this  was  no  easy  matter ;  for  things  had  been 
much  complicated  by  the  mistakes  that  had  been  made 
on  both  sides  by  the  respective  envoys.  How  Mr. 
Genest  spoiled  his  own  game,  has  already  been  ex 
plained.  He  had  ventured  to  do  that  which  is  al 
ways  fatal  to  the  usefulness  of  a  diplomatic  repre- 

/  sentative — he  had   mixed  himself  with  the   internal 
politics  of  the  country  to  which  he  was  sent.     Mr. 

)  Fauchet,  who  succeeded  him,  had  done  even  worse,  for 
he  had  succeeded  in  implicating  the  successor  of  Jef 
ferson  as  Secretary  of  State  in  transactions  the  dubi 
ous  character  of  which  made  that  officer's  resignation 
inevitable,  and  his  own  retreat  expedient.  On  the 


25 

other  hand,  General  Washington's  selection  of  Gouver- 
neur  Morris  to  go  to  Paris  had  not  turned  out  much 
better.  In  ordinary  times,  when  the  most  that  would 
be  required  of  a  Minister  is  to  make  himself  accept 
able  to  the  Government  and  in  society,  and  to  trans 
act  routine  business  with  intelligence  and  despatch, 
no  one  would  have  been  more  fit  than  he.  Indeed,  he 
was  fitted  for  much  more  than  that.  His  life  is  too  well 
known  to  you,  and  his  relations  to  your  Society  have 
been  such  as  not  to  need  that  I  should  enlarge  on  his 
various  excellent  qualities.  The  difficulty  was  not 
that  he  had  not  made  himself  acceptable  at  the  Court 
of  Louis  XVI.  It  was  just  the  opposite.  He  had 
become  too  acceptable,  and  the  consequence  was,  that 
when  the  internal  rupture  between  the  Crown  and  the 
people  took  place,  he  was  found  plunged  deep  in  the 
counsels  of  the  King.  Of  course  it  followed  that, 
when  the  Eepublic  triumphed,  he  was  no  longer  wel 
come  to  the  victors,  and  therefore  he,  too,  was  recalled. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  how  often  in  our  diplomatic 
history  this  peculiar  difficulty  has  been  developed. 
Even  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  preceded  Morris,  admira 
bly  fitted  as  he  was  in  all  other  respects,  had  made 
affiliations  with  the  opposition  somewhat  transcending 
the  proper  limits  of  his  place. 

And  it  turned  out  not  much  better  with  the  next 
choice  that  was  made.  Washington  meant  it  for  the 
best.  His  desire  was  now  to  select  some  one  against 
whom  no  similar  charge  could  be  raised — some  person 


26 

known  to  be  friendly  to  the  revolutionary  authorities, 
and  yet  trustworthy  in  acquitting  himself  of  a  deli 
cate  duty.  He  looked  carefully  around  among  the 
public  men,  and  his  eye  rested  upon  James  Monroe,  a 
man  distinguished  for  service  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  then  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Virginia,  of 
sober  mind,  but  yet  understood  to  be  sanguine  in  the 
ultimate  success  of  the  great  movement  then  in  prog 
ress.  Mr.  Monroe  accepted  the  trust,  and  immediately 
repaired  to  France.  Unfortunately,  one  essential  qual 
ity  for  success  had  been  overlooked  :  wrhich  is,  that  he 
should  be  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  his 
instructions,  and  disposed  implicitly  to  execute  the 
policy  of  his  chief.  Of  the  modes  of  proceeding  a  man 
may  be  the  best  judge  when  he  comes  on  the  spot ; 
but  as  to  the  substance,  he  should  follow  his  orders, 
not  as  he,  but  as  his  principal  understands  them.  Mr. 
Monroe,  being  in  no  sympathy  with  the  Administra 
tion,  fell  into  the  error  of  construing  his  instructions 
as  he  wished,  and  not  as  they  were  intended.  The 
policy  of  "Washington  before  the  negotiation  of  Jay's 
treaty,  and  whilst  there  was  danger  of  a  rupture  with 
Great  Britain,  was  to  do  all  he  could  to  cultivate  a 
friendly  relation  with  France.  To  that  end  he  expect 
ed  Mr.  Monroe  to  adopt  a  conciliatory  deportment, 
which  might  open  the  way  to  an  ultimate  alliance  in 
case  war  with  England  should  prove  inevitable,  but 
in  no  way  to  commit  the  country,  or  hold  out  hopes 
in  advance  of  a  departure  from  the  established  neu- 


27 

trality.  But  Mr.  Monroe,  instead  of  pursuing  this 
cautious  line  of  conduct,  opened  liis  career  with  a 
public  demonstration  of  his  sympathy  with  the  new 
regime,  and  went  on  as  if  he  regarded  a  breach  with 
Great  Britain  certain,  and  he  had  nothing  to  do  but 
to  prepare  the  French  authorities  to  seize  the  first  mo 
ment  to  close  an  alliance  such  as  it  had  been  the 
object  of  Mr.  Genest's  mission  to  secure.  This  singu 
lar  proceeding  had  the  effect  of  reviving  their  hopes, 
then  nearly  extinguished,  and  of  changing  their  de 
portment,  which,  from  cold  and  haughty,  suddenly  be 
came  extremely  cordial  to  the  new  envoy.  Whether 
the  public  manifestation  of  this  change  did  or  did  not 
have  an  effect  in  quickening  the  movement  of  the 
British  Cabinet,  then  engaged  in  negotiation  with  Mr, 
Jay,  it  is  not  possible  to  say.  But  the  fact  is  certain, 
that  the  news  which  followed  of  the  conclusion  of 
that  treaty  filled  Mr.  Monroe  with  consternation  and 
the  Directory  with  disgust.  Very  naturally  they 
looked  to  him  for  explanations  which  it  was  utterly 
out  of  his  power  to  give.  But  he  succeeded  so  far  as 
this,  that  they  acquitted  him  of  all  blame,  and  threw 
the  whole  responsibility  upon  his  Government.  This 
line  of  separation  was  a  dangerous  one  to  draw,  and 
the  toleration  of  it  by  Mr.  Monroe  implied  a  state  of 
feeling  in  him  by  no  means  suitable  to  his  place. 
Whether  he  went  so  far  as  to  countenance  the  distinc 
tion,  it  is  not  my  province  to  determine.  The  statement 
that  he  did,  is  substantially  advanced  in  the  latest  and 


28 

most  elaborate  history  of  those  times,  written  by  the 
distinguished  statesman,  M.  Thiers.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that,  on  learning  what  had  happened,  Mr.  Monroe 
received  orders  from  his  Government  to  return  home. 
He  felt  so  much  aggrieved  that  he  resorted  to  an  ap 
peal  to  the  public  in  his  justification,  and  his  book  did 
not  scruple  to  throw  the  blame  of  his  failure  upon 
Washington  himself.  Washington  in  his  turn  left  a 
series  of  sarcastic  comments  in  the  margin  of  his  copy, 
which  leave  no  doubt  of  his  opinion  of  the  writer. 
It  served  the  purpose  of  a  party-pamphlet  against  the 
Government  at  the  time,  and  all  those  people  believed 
him  a  martyr,  who  wished  to  go  into  opposition.  But 
impartial  posterity  will  decide  that,  in  rushing  into 
print,  he  has  only  furnished  perpetual  evidence  against 
himself  Mr.  Monroe's  errors,  however,  were  only  in 
judgment,  unduly  biased  by  partisan  feeling,  which 
were  all  fully  redeemed  afterwards  by  his  long  and 
arduous  services,  carried  up  even  to  the  highest  posi 
tion  in  the  gift  of  the  nation. 

Not  disheartened  by  this  second  misfortune,  Wash 
ington  felt  the  paramount  importance  of  still  a  third 
effort  to  conciliate  France.  The  treaty  of  Mr.  Jay  had 
cut  off  all  remaining  chance  of  shaking  the  neutral 
policy  as  it  respected  England,  so  he  very  natu 
rally  hoped  that,  instead  of  indulging  further  indig 
nation,  she  would  see  the  wisdom  on  her  side  of  re 
gaining  her  hold  upon  American  sympathy  by  an  ami 
cable  reception  of  a  new  manifestation  of  unimpaired 


29 

good-will.  So  lie  appointed  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinck- 
ney  to  the  task  of  correcting  the  mistakes  of  his  pre 
decessors,  and  replacing  the  two  countries  on  the 
ancient  basis.  But,  no.  The  Directory  had  taken 
their  bent,  and  were  determined  to  follow  it  at  all 
hazards.  Indignant  at  the  treaty  of  Mr.  Jay,  and 
fully  aware  that  General  Washington's  great  hold  on 
the  affections  of  America  was  on  the  eve  of  with 
drawal,  by  his  voluntary  retirement  from  office,  they 
preferred  to  try  their  chances  to  restore  their  influence 
by  cultivating  the  favor  of  the  Opposition,  rather  than 
meeting  the  advances  of  the  Administration.  It  was 
in  this  spirit  that  they  began  to  act  on  the  arrival  of 
Mr.  Pinckney.  To  Mr.  Monroe  they  continued  their 
studied  attentions  down  to  the  last  moment  of  his 
stay,  and  they  honored  his  departure  by  a  public  cere 
mony,  in  which  the  chief  Director  made  a  parting  ad 
dress  of  a  most  personally  laudatory  kind.  But  they 
as  steadily  refused  to  take  the  smallest  notice  of  Mr. 
Pinckney.  It  w7as  in  vain  that  he  applied  for  a  recog 
nition  of  his  credentials,  both  directly  and  through  third 
persons.  The  Directory  was  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb. 
For  two  whole  months  was  this  game  kept  up.  Mr. 
Pinckney,  wholly  unprepared  for  so  extraordinary  a 
course  to  a  diplomatic  representative,  was  afraid  to  act 
without  instructions,  until  he  at  last  received  official 
notice  from  the  Foreign  Secretary  that,  in  accordance 
with  a  law  lately  passed  expelling  foreigners,  he  must 
forthwith  quit  the  territories  of  France.  Meanwhile 


30 

the  mission  of  Mr.  Adet,  the  third  envoy  sent  out  to 
the  United  States  since  the  Kevolution,  had  been  sus 
pended.  The  young  Napoleon  was  just  then  begin 
ning  his  career  of  victory  in  Italy,  and  the  Directory 
felt  as  if  they  could  afford  to  be  arrogant.  The  only 
consolation  we  could  have  had  for  this  treatment  was, 
that  we  were  in  good  company.  Two  Ministers  from 
the  smaller  powers  of  Europe  were  expelled  with  the 
same  curtness ;  and  even  Lord  Malmesbury,  a  special 
envoy  sent  by  Great  Britain  to  negotiate  terms  of 
peace,  was  banished  but  a  trine  less  rudely. 

Washington,  weary  with  contention  but  firm  in 
purpose  to  the  last,  had  now  gone  out  of  power,  and 
the  first  thing  the  next  Administration  was  called  to 
meet  was  this  deliberate  insult  to  the  dignity  of  the 
nation.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  the  natural 
course  would  have  been  defiance,  and,  upon  the  hap 
pening  of  the  first  overt  act  of  hostility,  a  declaration 
of  war.  But  this  was  precisely  what  it  had  been  the 
steady  purpose  to  prevent.  So  it  was  deemed  best  to 
call  Congress  together  for  consultation,  and  to  make 
still  a  third  effort  at  reconciliation  by  the  agency  of  a 
commission  composed  of  three  persons  distinguished 
for  character  as  well  as  moderation.  These  three  were 
Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  John  Marshall,  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  Elbridge  Gerry,  of  Massachusetts. 

And  here  I  am  tempted  to  interpose  a  single  obser 
vation  touching  this  peculiar  form  of  procedure  in  for 
eign  affairs,  because  on  some  accounts  it  recommends 


31 

itself  to  the  peculiar  structure  of  our  Government. 
ISio  single  man  is  likely  often  to  concentrate  upon  him 
self  the  confidence  of  the  various  sections  of  country, 
or  exactly  to  represent  their  feelings.  Hence  it  is  nat 
ural  to  resort  to  the  selection  of  several,  each  of  whom 
may  be  better  suited  to  convey  the  sentiments  of  that 
region  to  which  he  himself  belongs.  It  is  on  this 
account  that,  in  the  course  of  our  history,  we  have  had 
at  least  five  commissions  of  three  persons  each,  and 
one  extending  even  to  five.  But  the  experience  thus 
far  rather  goes  to  show  that  it  is  always  a  hazardous 
agency.  The  objection  to  it  is,  that  it  breeds  differ 
ences  of  opinion  often  so  extreme  as  to  endanger,  if 
not  to  defeat,  the  attainment  of  the  object.  Of  the 
five  commissions  to  which  I  have  alluded,  only  one 
appears  to  have  been  carried  through  with  entire  har 
mony  among  the  members.  In  two  of  them,  involv 
ing  critical  questions  of  the  restoration  of  peace,  the 
discord  was  at  times  so  serious  as  greatly  to  imperil 
the  negotiation.  It  is  not,  therefore,  so  safe  an  expe 
dient  as  the  selection  of  a  single  person,  in  whose 
character  and  responsibility  experience  has  taught  us 
to  rely.  Had  Mr.  Jay  been  in  a  commission,  I  very 
much  doubt  if  any  result  would  have  been  reached. 
In  the  case  immediately  before  us  another  difficulty 
occurred.  These  eminently  respectable  and  competent 
men  were  destined  to  be  subjected  to  trials  of  which 
they  had  no  suspicion  in  advance.  Attempts  were  made 
to  divide  them,  and  not  wholly  without  success.  They 


32 

came  in  their  simplicity  armed  with  the  best  of  rea 
soning  to  prove  the  justice  of  their  complaints  and 
the  advantages  of  peace  and  conciliation.  They  were 
met  by  a  whispered  inquiry  how  much  they  were 
ready  to  pay.  Think  for  a  moment  of  John  Marshall, 
who  for  over  thirty  years  held  up  the  judicial  ermine 
free  from  the  slightest  breath  of  stain,  invited  to  hag 
gle  with  the  emissaries  of  Talleyrand  about  the  terms 
in  cash  upon  which  they  might  hope  for  the  privilege 
of  being  courteously  treated  !  Nothing  of  that  sort 
had  been  set  down  in  the  instructions,  for  the  Govern 
ment  was  then  entirely  beyond  suspicion  of  harboring 
corruption  in  any  form.  Washington  and  Jefferson, 
Hamilton  and  Adams,  might  differ  widely  in  opinion, 
but  their  hands  were  clean.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Directory  had  passed  from  its  early  stage  of  in 
fatuated  sentiment  into  the  hands  of  sensual  and 
greedy  adventurers.  The  chief,  Barras,  fond  of  pleas 
ure,  and  realizing  the  description  Sallust  gives  of  Cati 
line,  "alien!  appetens,  sui  profusus,"  considered  his 
post  as  a  fair  source  of  supply  to  his  private  gratifica 
tions  ;  whilst  the  Secretary,  Talleyrand,  an  unfrocked 
priest  not  behind  him  in  profligacy,  far  excelled  him 
in  the  art  of  playing  for  great  stakes.  Of  course,  the 
commissioners  decided  that  there  was  no  room  for 
them  in  such  company.  The  answer  soon  appeared  in 
the  refusal  to  negotiate.  All  the  long  despatches, 
with  their  skilful  reasoning,  availed  only  to  cover  the 
transaction  from  the  gaze  of  the  public.  Towards  the 


33 

last  the  adroit  Talleyrand  fixed  his  attention  upon  Mr. 
Gerry,  and  tried  to  make  him  malleable  for  a  separate 
negotiation.  And  in  one  sense  he  succeeded  ;  for  Mr. 
Gerry  rather  weakly  did  consent  to  stay  after  his  col 
leagues  left  Paris.  I  entertain  no  doubt  that  the  wily 
Frenchman  then  thought  the  game  had  gone  too  far, 
and  wished  to  evade  the  possible  result  of  an  open 
rupture.  But  Mr.  Gerry  would  not  lend  himself  to 
any  compromise,  and  even  this  device  ended  in  noth 


ing. 


Thus  closed  this  fourth  effort  to  save  the  neutral 
policy  by  establishing  a  reconciliation  with  France- 
no  withdrawal  of  her  attempts  to  plunder  us  on  the 
ocean,  and  no  moderation  in  her  offensive  demands  of 
satisfaction  for  the  negotiation  with  Great  Britain.  In 
this  emergency  the  Administration  had  no  alternative 
but  to  submit  to  the  world  a  complete  report  of  all 
the  proceedings.  Hence  the  exposure  of  the  scandal 
ous  operations  of  three  emissaries  of  Talleyrand, 
designated  by  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  X,  Y,  Z, 
which  went  back  to  Europe  and  became  notorious  in 
every  quarter  of  it.  This  was  as  unexpected  by  the 
Directory  and  their  secretary  as  it  was  unwelcome. 
Frenchmen  are  more  alive  to  the  ridicule  than  to  the 
wickedness  of  a  transaction.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
publication  had  the  effect  in  America  of  rallying  the 
whole  people  to  the  support  of  the  Government.  The 
scheme  of  changing  the  Administration  with  the  co 
operation  of  the  Opposition  was  dissipated ;  for  every 
3 


34 

"body  was  ashamed  of  being  suspected  to  favor  such 
doings.  The  alternative  was  war,  and  accordingly  for 
war  were  all  the  necessary  preparations  made.  Wash 
ington  was  called  back  from  his  retirement  to  head  the 
army,  and  the  navy  found  here  the  source  of  that  effi 
ciency  which  has  since  developed  itself  so  nobly  on 
every  sea. 

Never  since  the  issue  of  the  proclamation  was  the 
country  so  near  to  shipwreck  of  its  policy  of  neutral 
ity  as  at  this  moment.  Great  Britain  was  already  on 
the  watch  for  events ;  and  projects  of  closer  alliance 
and  joint  operations  were  fast  breeding  in  many 
minds.  Had  the  Directory  continued  to  be  stimu 
lated  by  the  honest  infatuation  of  the  Jacobin  era,  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  we  might  soon  have  found  our 
selves  deeply  complicated  with  embarrassing  „  adven 
tures  on  land  and  at  sea.  But  the  patriotic  fever  had 
passed  away,  and  Talleyrand,  who  now  guided  the 
foreign  policy,  was  not  a  man  to  be  carried  off  his  feet 
by  a  fit  of  enthusiasm.  He  saw  at  once  that  he  had 
overshot  the  mark.  By  alienating  America,  he  had 
neither  filled  his  own  pockets  nor  helped  the  French 
position  in  Europe.  This  skilful  diplomatist  was  too 
great  an  adept  in  intrigue  not  to  understand  how  to 
guard  against  personal  responsibility  for  the  overtures 
of  his  agents ;  so  he  hazarded  nothing  in  disavowing 
all  their  acts.  Neither  can  I  find  that  his  private  ne 
gotiations,  though  flagrant  enough,  involved  any  inju 
rious  sacrifices  for  his  country.  He  seems  to  have 


35 

required  subsidies  from  weak  powers  for  doing  what 
would  serve  them,  and  at  the  same  time  be  of  no 
disadvantage  to  France.  So,  finding  he  had  missed 
his  aim  in  this  attempt  on  the  United  States,  and 
that  the  result  was  likely  to  play  into  the  hands  of 
England,  instead  of  throwing  up  the  cards,  he  imme 
diately  set  about,  a  scheme  to  restore  his  chances.  The 
President,  in  'his  Message  to  Congress  laying  the  facts 
before  them,  had  left  a  single  opening  which,  if 
promptly  used,  might  bring  matters  back  at  least  to  a 
possibility  of  reopening  negotiation.  Talleyrand  qui 
etly  took  advantage  of  it  at  once.  He  recognized  the 
condition  declared  to  be  indispensable,  and  com 
plied  with  it.  Overtures  came  in  a  roundabout  way 
to  the  Administration,  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of 
which  imposed  a  responsibility  almost  equally  onerous. 
After  so  much  wanton  trifling,  attended  by  such  intol 
erable  arrogance,  it  was  difficult  at  once  to  summon 
confidence  in  the  sincerity  of  so  sudden  a, change.  It 
was,  moreover,  not  a  little  hazardous  to  check  the  flow 
of  popular  feeling  that  had  set  in  for  war,  upon  which 
reliance  was  to  be  placed  to  carry  it  on  if  it  should 
prove  inevitable.  Yet,  after  anxious  consideration,  the 
President,  assuming  to  himself  the  whole  responsibil 
ity  for  his  act,  determined  not  to  neglect  the  overture. 
He  put  trust  in  the  sincerity  of  the  maker  so  far  as  to 
offer  to  send  out  a  new  mission,  conditioned  upon  the 
express  public  recognition  of  it  in  advance  of  its  de 
parture.  This  was  all  that  Talleyrand  wanted.  The 


36 

assurances  were  given  at  once.  France  was  relieved 
from  the  effects  of  his  error.  So  were  the  United 
States.  The  disappointment  fell  to  the  share  of  Great 
Britain  alone. 

Chief- Justice  Ellsworth,  William  Kichardson  Davie. 
and  William  Vans  Murray,  were  at  once  appointed  to 
repair  to  Paris,  and  this  time  the  gates  were  left  wide 
open  to  receive  them.  Not  a  word  of  offence  about 
the  British  treaty ;  not  a  whisper  about  money ;  not 
a  single  long  despatch,  terminating  in  no  measure. 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  had  become  the  First  Consul  of 
the  Eepublic,  and  the  supple  Minister  understood  that 
conciliation  was  the  policy.  The  consequence  was  a 
treaty,  and  the  American  right  to  be  neutral  in  the 
wars  of  Europe  was  for  the  third  time  rescued  in  a 
moment  of  its  greatest  danger. 

This  treaty  is  memorable  for  another  reason :  it 
retrieved  the  great  error  which  had  been  committed 
all  the  way  back  in  the  first  treaty  of  alliance,  nego 
tiated  before  we  could  be  called  independent — I  mean 
the  treaty  with  France  in  17 7 8.  Anxious  as  our  com 
missioners  then  were  to  get  the  assistance  of  so  great 
a  power  in  the  severe  struggle  for  liberty,  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  they  should  have  omitted  to  study  the 
force  of  every  word  in  it.  Hence,  when  France  came 
forward  and  proposed  to  guarantee  on  her  part  to  the 
United  States  their  liberty  and  their  possessions,  as 
they  should  be  determined  in  America  by  the  issue  of 
the  war,  it  did  not  seem  very  much  on  her  part  to  ask 


37 

that  we  should,  in  our  turn,  guarantee  to  her  all  the 
possessions  she  might  have  in  America  at  the  same 
date.  All  this  might  have  been  well  enough  but  for 
the  slipping  in  of  one  little  bit  of  a  word,  which  yet 
means  so  much  that  it  does  not  become  us  poor,  feeble, 
finite  beings  to  play  with  it  at  random.  This  was  the 
word  "  forever ; "  and  when  put  after  the  word  "  guar 
antee,"  it  signified  no  end  of  obligation.  It  was  like 
placing  a  figure  1  in  arithmetic  before  a  few  hundreds 
of  valueless  ciphers,  except  that,  in  this  case,  there  is 
a  limit,  and  in  that  there  is  none.  Had  the  commis 
sioners  stopped  to  think,  they  might  have  foreseen 
that  this  was  not  a  fair  bargain  ;  for,  after  the  recog 
nition  of  our  independence  by  Great  Britain,  we  were 
likely  every  year  to  grow  more  secure  in  the  posses 
sion  of  our  territories,  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
possessions  of  France  were  in  the  West  .Indies,  pecu 
liarly  liable  to  attack  in  every  war,  especially  with 
Great  Britain.  In  point  of  fact  they  have  nearly  dis 
appeared.  But  the  commissioners  were  not  seers,  nei 
ther  did  they  affect  philology.  The  consequence  was, 
an  important  variation  from  the  principle  of  neutral 
ity,  which  came  back  to  plague  us  after  that  principle 
had  been  solemnly  proclaimed  as  the  national  policy. 
In  this  particular  it  must  be  conceded  that  France  had 
claims  upon  us  which  it  was  difficult  to  deny,  or  even 
to  dispute.  It  formed  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the 
settlement  of  the  differences,  and  it  was  expunged  at 
last  only  by  consenting  to  abandon  the  just  claims  of 


38 

private  citizens  for  the  plunder  of  their  property  on 
the  high  seas,  which  they  had  risked  upon  their  confi 
dence  that  their  own  Government  would  protect  them 
from  wrongful  violence.  Thus  it  turned  out  that  the 
little  word  with  a  "big  meaning — "  forever  " — was  re 
deemed  at  the  end  of  twenty-three  years,  and  at  the 
price  of  about  ten  millions  of  dollars,  drawn  from  the 
estates  of  private  persons,  many  of  them  made  poor 
by  the  loss  of  it,  not  a  cent  of  which  has  ever  been 
repaid.  I  think  it  cannot  be  denied  that  this  to  the 
Government  was  a  bargain,  "  cheap  as  dirt "  and  about 
as  clean. 

If  there  be  at  this  time  any  unsettled  claims  on 
foreign  Governments  for  depredations  on  private  prop 
erty  at  sea,  of  a  similar  nature,  which  under  the  insti 
gation  of  political  ambition  may  be  made  the  pretext 
of  a  war  costing  a  thousandfold  their  amount  to  the 
country,  I  take  the  liberty  of  respectfully  pointing  out 
to  the  proprietors  the  dangerous  nature  of  the  present 
example.  Let  them  beware  of  a  peace  negotiated  on 
the  basis  of  a  cession  of  territory,  North  or  South,  at 
their  expense. 

But  time  wears,  and  I  must  hasten  to  the  end  of 
my  story.  The  principle  laid  down  by  "Washington 
had  now  been  saved  three  times,  and  it  might  have 
reasonably  been  hoped  that  afterwards  the  country 
would  be  permitted  to  adhere  to  it  free  from  further 
molestation.  So  far  was  this  from  the  actual  truth, 
that  a  new  struggle  was  then  impending,  which  for  a 


39 

time  sank  it  completely  out  of  sight.  As  the  wars 
of  Europe  waxed  hotter  and  hotter,  as  Napoleon  ac 
quired  a  sway  over  the  Continent  which  was  only  bal 
anced  by  the  corresponding  growth  of  British  power 
over  the  water,  all  notions  of  respect  for  any  neutral 
rights  became  fainter  and  fainter.  French  decrees  and 
British  orders  in  council  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
ferocity  with  which  they  threatened  vengeance  against 
all  who  claimed  a  right  to  trade  with  their  enemies. 
The  details  of  this  unparalleled  state  of  things  are  too 
familiarly  known  to  need  to  be  dwelt  upon  at  this 
time.  The  United  States,  which  had  a  legitimate 
right  of  being  the  common  carrier  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  civilized  world,  was  suddenly  made  the  victim 
of  the  angry  passions  of  each  party  in  its  turn.  The 
alternative  was  a  painful  one.  Either  the  whole  field 
in  wrhich  neutral  rights  were  brought  into  dispute 
must  be  abandoned,  or  war  must  be  waged  in  their 
defence  against  one  party  or  the  other,  and  perhaps 
against  both. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  by  this  time  succeeded  to  power. 
His  disposition  was  strong  to  maintain,  in  this  respect, 
the  same  general  policy  pursued  by  his  predecessor, 
to  which  he  had  given  his  assent  as  an  adviser  of 
Washington.  But  the  dilemma  was  a  painful  one. 
His  love  of  peace  prompted  the  entire  withdrawal  of 
the  commerce  of  the  country  from  the  ocean,  which 
was  equivalent  to  a  surrender,  for  the  time,  of  the 
whole  question  at  issue.  To  this  he  had  been  the 


40 

more  compelled  by  necessity  created  by  his  neglect  of 
the  maintenance  and  growth  of  a  navy,  without  the 
protection  of  which  neutral  rights  on  the  high  seas 
were  not  in  that  day,  perhaps  are  not  in  any  time  of 
war,  likely  to  secure  respect.  Yet  a  secession  from  the 
ocean  was  practically  a  temporary  suspension  of  the 
right  to  use  it,  and  a  surrender  of  the  wrhole  question  at 
issue.  The  embargo  which  followed  was  a  public  con 
fession  of  weakness,  justified  only  by  necessity.  The 
non -intercourse  presently  substituted  was  a  still  more 
pitiful  expedient,  of  which  the  injury  done  was  more 
to  ourselves  than  our  opponents.  These  expedients 
only  served  to  irritate  the  British  the  more,  and  did 
not  save  us  from  the  danger  of  ultimate  collision.  The 
assault  of  a  British  naval  commander  in  our  waters 
upon  one  of  the  national  frigates  as  she  sailed  out  of 
the  harbor  of  Norfolk,  and  the  seizure  of  four  of  her 
men  by  violence,  on  the  assumption  that  they  were 
British  subjects,  only  proved  that  timidity  was  no  way 
to  secure  respect.  I  can  never  read  the  account  of 
that  transaction  without  a  profound  conviction  that 
the  national  spirit  which  animated  that  officer  could 
be  dealt  with  properly  only  by  a  blow.  It  is  very 
true  that  the  act  was  ultimately  disavowed,  and  the 
offender  equivocally  censured  ;  but  the  principle  upon 
which  he  proceeded  was  not  disavowed,  and  the  gen 
eral  right  to  take  men  by  force,  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  subjects,  was  not  only  justified,  but  harshly 
exercised.  Neither  was  the  deportment  of  the  British 


41 

Minister  of  a  kind  to  promote  a  spirit  of  reconcilia 
tion.  George  Canning,  with  all  his  brilliancy  of  tal 
ent,  was  the  impersonation  of  the  most  unpleasant 
features  of  the  national  character.  His  social  wit  in 
grave  circumstances  too  often  changed  to  sarcasm ;  his 
indifference  to  superciliousness,  his  courtesy  to  arro 
gance.  It  is  not,  then,  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
various  efforts  at  negotiation,  and  the  exchange  of  suc 
cessive  diplomatic  envoys,  which  at  times  seemed  on 
the  eve  of  reconciling  differences,  all  successively  failed. 
Sometimes  too  much  had  been  yielded,  and  the  Minis 
ter  was  disavowed ;  at  others  he  was  so  insolent  that 
he  was  dismissed.  The  root  of  the  evil  was  in  the 
heart  which  failed  to  be  true  to  the  proposed  object ; 
and  the  end  was  to  bring  on  a  war,  which,  taken  from 
the  English  point  of  view,  has  ever  seemed  to  me  a 
blunder  committed  from  her  customary  habit  of  not 
retracting  an  error  in  good  season. 

The  war  came.  It  was  deliberately  declared  by 
us,  and  I  have  never  been  able  to  doubt  its  necessity 
as  a  means  of  bringing  Great  Britain  to  reason.  An 
experience  of  two  years,  with  no  decided  issue  on 
either  side,  was  found  sufficient  to  effect  that  object. 
An  offer  of  friendly  mediation  made  by  Russia  cleared 
the  way  for  a  direct  communication,  the  issue  of  which 
was  the  assembly  of  commissioners  to  treat  at  Ghent 
in  the  Spring  of  1814.  Three  persons  appeared  on 
the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  five  on  that  of  the  Uni 
ted  States.  The  former  were  Lord  Gambier,  Mr. 


42 

Goulburn,  and  Mr.  Adams ;  the  latter  were  Messrs. 
Gallatin,  Adams,  Bayard,  Clay,  and  Eussell.  Of  the 
doings  of  this  body  I  must  dispense  with  such  a  nar 
rative  as  I  should  like  to  give.  Of  the  fluctuations 
of  hope  and  of  fear  on  the  American  side,  of  the  va 
riations  of  the  struggle  with  their  opponents,  and  the 
more  earnest  and  sometimes  critical  divisions  among 
themselves,  I  have  the  fortune  to  be  provided  with 
peculiar  materials  to  judge,  as  they  have  been  trans 
mitted  by  one  himself  actively  engaged  in  the  scene 
Some  time  or  other  I  hope  to  be  able  to  make  that 
contribution  to  our  history.  But  I  cannot  resist  the 
present  temptation  to  pay  a  brief  tribute  to  the  use 
fulness  of  another  of  the  actors,  and  the  more  that  lie 
was  so  well  known  afterwards  in  this  city,  to  which 
he  came  to  spend  the  last  years  of  a  long,  a  distin 
guished,  and  an  honorable  career.  Time,  which  rolls 
on  in  its  ceaseless  course,  rapidly  obliterates  the  traces 
of  the  ephemeral  reputations  raised  amid  the  conflicts 
of  mere  partisan  politics.  Even  on  the  ever-expanding 
roll  of  the  names  of  our  chief  magistrates,  nine  tenths 
of  them  will  pass  under  the  eye  of  a  remote  generation 
with  as  little  emotion  as  we  now  feel  when  we  run 
down  the  columns  of  those  of  the  rulers  of  Rome  in 
the  Consular  Fasti.  From  such  a  doom  Albert  Gallatin 
merits  to  be  excepted,  for  few  of  his  generation  con 
tributed  more  to  the  maintenance  and  preservation  of 
the  country  in  its  most  critical  conjunctures.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  his  services  in  diplomatic  stations, 


43 

for  which  he  was  in  every  respect  eminently  fitted ;  and 
nowhere  were  his  qualities  more  usefully  developed 
than  while  the  negotiations  for  peace  were  pending. 
They  were,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  carried  on 
under  much  disadvantage,  the  English  commissioners 
having  constant  opportunities  of  communication  with 
their  Government,  whilst  the  Americans  were  con 
strained,  by  their  distance  over  sea,  to  take  great  re 
sponsibility  in  every  emergency  upon  themselves.  A 
sense  of  this  pressure  very  naturally  gave  rise  to  many 
conflicts  of  opinion  among  the  five  men,  according  to 
the  nature  of  their  respective  temperaments.  These 
differences  sometimes  developed  warmth  in  just  pro 
portion  to  the  estimated  importance  of  the  interest 
affected.  It  is  just  here  that  the  intervention  of  Mr. 
Gallatin  appears  to  have  been  of  the  highest  value. 
Calm  in  discussion,  quick  in  mastering  the  points  at 
issue,  ready  in  resources,  and  adroit  in  giving  shape  to 
acceptable  propositions,  his  influence  upon  the  thread 
of  the  negotiation  is  apparent,  not  less  in  the  inter 
course  with  the  opposite  side  than  in  reconciling  the 
jarring  interests  of  his  own.  It  may  justly  be  said 
of  him,  that  in  this  most  important  emergency,  when 
the  scales  were  trembling  in  the  balance,  his  peculiar 
qualifications  came  in  to  give  just  the  weight  adequate 
to  secure  the  desired  result. 

Thus  it  turned  out  that,  on  the  24th  of  December, 
1814,  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  was 
made  which  has  secured  the  pacific  relations  of  the 


44 

two  countries  for  a  period  now  extending  beyond  half 
a  century. 

Of  the  character  of  that  treaty  there  were  opposite 
opinions  held  at  the  time,  though  the  peace  was  hailed 
with  universal  joy.  It  was  objected  to  it  that  in 
terms  it  settled  none  of  the  great  questions  of  neutral 
rights,  for  the  defence  of  which  the  war  had  been  de 
clared,  and  left  matters  much  in  the  condition  in  which 
they  were  before.  Literally  speaking,  the  remark  may 
be  true ;  and  yet,  in  point  of  fact,  it  is  the  very  oppo 
site  of  truth.  Great  Britain,  in  terms,  yielded  noth 
ing  of  the  pretensions  she  had  advanced  before  the 
war.  It  is  not  her  habit,  nor  the  habit  of  any  great 
nation,  to  humiliate  itself  unnecessarily.  On  the  other 
hand,  from  the  date  of  that  treaty  down  to  this  mo 
ment  not  a  question  has  been  raised,  not  a  complaint 
made  of  the  repetition  of  any  such  scenes  on  the 
ocean  as  were  happening  every  day  before.  The  bar 
barous  practice  of  impressment  has  been  voluntarily 
abandoned.  The  claim  of  a  right  to  the  services  of  a 
subject  in  despite  of  naturalization  elsewhere  has 
never  since  been  pressed,  and  has  very  lately  been  ex 
plicitly  surrendered :  and,  from  being  a  fierce  enemy 
to  the  extension  of  neutral  rights,  Great  Britain  has 
gradually  been  becoming  our  aptest  scholar.  Indeed, 
she  has  outrun  her  preceptor;  for,  in  1856,  she  gave 
in  her  adhesion  to  the  Declaration  of  Paris,  which 
abandoned  the  piratical  practice  of  privateering,  and 
recognized  the  principle  she  had  so  long  contested,  of 


45 

free  ships,  free  goods.  Nay,  even  more  than  that.  In 
the  late  unhappy  conflict  between  ourselves,  it  hap 
pened  to  be  my  particular  duty  to  make  many  com 
plaints  of  her  alleged  violations  of  neutrality,  the 
favorite  mode  of  replying  to  which  was  by  appeals  to 
our  own  construction  of  neutral  doctrines.  This 
being  so,  I  think  it  may  justly  be  claimed  that  the 
treaty  of  Ghent  was  our  greatest  triumph,  inasmuch 
as  from  that  date  has  commenced  the  change  of  policy 
which  has  at  last  placed  the  most  ruthless  belligerent 
known  to  the  world  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  recog 
nize  the  principle  upon  which  Washington  started, 
and  which  Mr.  Wheaton  has  put  into  language  I  now 
ask  leave  to  repeat  as  the  burden  of  my  song  : 

"  The  right  of  every  independent  state  to  remain 
at  peace  whilst  other  states  are  engaged  in  war,  is  an 
incontestable  attribute  of  sovereignty." 

Happy  day  of  a  treaty  which  witnessed  the  estab 
lishment  of  so  grand  a  confirmation  ! — worthy,  in 
deed,  of  being  signed  on  the  eve  of  that  blessed  morn, 
the  anniversary  of  the  declaration  from  on  high  of  the 
great  mission  of  peace  and  good-will  to  all  mankind. 

This  great  victory,  then,  is  won  :  and  for  the  future 
no  question  will  ever  be  raised  of  the  right  of  the 
United  States  to  remain  at  peace,  no  matter  what  par 
ties  may  choose  the  fearful  work  of  mutual  destruction. 
May  I  not  venture  to  use  the  words  of  an  oldpoet : 

"And  now  Time's  whiter  series  is  begun, 
Which  in  soft  centuries  shall  smoothly  run; 


46 

Those  clouds,  that  overcast  your  inorn,  shall  fly, 

Dispell'd  to  farthest  corners  of  the  sky ; 

Our  nation  with  united  interest  blest, 

Not  now  content  to  poise,  shall  sway  the  rest." 

Yes,  it  shall  "  sway  the  rest,"  not  by  its  power,  but 
by  its  example ;  not  by  dictation,  but  by  adhering, 
in  the  day  of  its  strength,  to  the  same  pure  and 
honorable  policy  which  it  proclaimed  and  defended 
when  relatively  weak.  Yes,  and  still  more,  by  devel 
oping  the  system  which  has  been  inaugurated,  as  far 
as  it  may  be  carried,  to  secure  peace  to  non-combatants 
everywhere.  The  Convention  of  Paris  in  1856  made 
great  steps  towards  it,  but  it  wanted  one  which  Mr. 
Marcy  went  too  far  in  making  a  condition  to  our  sign 
ing  that  instrument.  Thus  our  national  testimony  has 
failed  to  be  recorded  upon  a  paper  so  honorable  to  the 
progress  of  the  present  age.  The  time  had  not  arrived 
for  that  more  magnificent  advance  in  the  career  of 
humanity ;  but  brilliant  will  be  the  fame  of  the  states 
man  who  may  have  it  to  declare  that  through  his 
agency  so  great  a  step  shall  have  been  taken.  Nay, 
and  still  beyond  that :  his  province  it  may  be  to  make 
yet  other  moral  conquests — to  disclaim  the  right  of 
neutrals  to  supply  instruments  of  war  to  either  bel 
ligerent — to  expand  the  privileges  of  the  sea,  so  that 
no  piratical  cruiser  shall  be  permitted  to  stroll  over 
the  ocean  in  search  of  plunder  from  the  unarmed  and 
defenceless,  on  the  plea  that  he  is  a  privateer.  And 
even  beyond  that  again  :  that  no  innocent,  unarmed 


47 

private  voyager  of  any  country,  found  on  any  ocean 
of  the  globe,  shall  take  harm  to  himself  or  his  prop 
erty  merely  from  the  fact  that  he  belongs  to  a  bellige 
rent  nation. 

These  be  thy  victories,  O  Peace  !  before  which  the 
roar  of  the  booming  cannon,  the  yell  of  savage  com 
bat,  the  execrations  of  the  dying,  the  groans  of  the 
wounded,  and  the  shriek  of  the  widow  and  the 
orphan,  all  discords  melting  into  soft  harmony  of 
blessings,  shall  be  made  to  ascend  in  sweet  incense 
to  the  skies. 


49 


PROCEEDINGS,   ETC. 


AT  a  meeting  of  the  NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  held  in  the 
Academy  of  Music,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  on  Tuesday, 
.December  13th,  1870,  to  celebrate  the  Sixty-sixth  Anniver 
sary  of  the  Founding  of  the  Society  : 

The  exercises  were  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.. HENRY  C. 
POTTER,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Grace  Church. 

The  President,  Rev.  THOMAS  DE  WITT,  D.D.,  on  introducing 
Mr.  ADAMS,  remarked : 

"The  Sixty-sixth  Anniversary  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society  derives  special  interest  from  the  presence  of  him  who  this 
evening  will  address  us.  Amon,^  the  names  inscribed  on  our  his 
torical  annals,  and  commended  to  us  by  the  valuable  services  they 
have  rendered  to  our  country,  there  is  none  more  prominent  and 
distinguished  than  that  of  ADAMS.  Through  three  successive  gen 
erations,  reaching  from  the  latter  part  of  the  Colonial  Government/ 
through  the  Revolution,  and  onward  from  the  formation  of  the  Con 
stitution  to  the  present  time,  the  most  important  civil  and  diplo 
matic  trusts  have  been  ably  and  successfully  discharged  by  them. 
The  first  President  Adams  wras  conspicuous  in  the  discussions  and 
measures  preceding  and  issuing  in  the  Revolution,  and  resulting  in 
the. National  Independence,  and  afterwards  occupied  the  most  impor 
tant  offices.  His  son,  the  second  President  Adams,  was  trained  from 
oarly  youth  in  his  country's  service,  and  continued  uninterruptedly 
in  various  offices,  diplomatic  and  civil,  of  the  highest  rank,  tiJl  his 
death  at  an  advanced  age.  We  have  now  with  us  his  son,  who  most 
worthily  sustains  the  prestige  and  honor  of  the  family  name.  He 
has  recently  returned  from  wisriy  and  faithfully  discharging  the  im 
portant  diplomatic  trust  in  the  mission  o'f  United  States  Minister  to 
the  Court  of  Great  Britain.  We  gratefully  acknowledge  his  kind 
ness  in  acceding  to  our  request  to  address  us  this  evening.  We 
greet  him  in  acknowledgment  of  his  personal  worth  and  merit,  and 
in  the  cordial  reminiscence  of  the  debt  we  owe  to  his  an  W"e 

greet  him  especially  in  the  name  arid  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  of 


50 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  address,  Mr.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS 
rose,  and  said  : 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  move  that  the  thanks  of  this  Society  be 
presented  to  Mr.  Adams  for  the  learned,  eloquent,  and  instructive 
address  which  he  has  delivered  to  us  this  evening,  and  that  he  be 
requested  to  furnish  a  copy  thereof  for  publication.  In  making  this 
motion  I  am  sure  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that,  among  all  the 
able  and  useful  discourses  which,  under  the  auspices  of  this  Society, 
have  been  delivered  to  the  various  intelligent  audiences  which  have 
from  time  to  time  been  assembled,  I  but  express  the  general  opin 
ion  of  this  Society,  and  the  universal  applause  of  this  a-udience 
shows  that  they  concur  in  the  judgment,  that  none  has  ever  been  of 
greater  merit,  or  is  likely  to  be  of  higher  public  advantage,  than 
that  to  which  we  have  listened  to-night.  We  have  felt  that  its 
attraction  and  its  impression  were  not  due  alone  to  the  stores  of 
historical  knowledge  that  could  present  within  the  brief  space  of  an 
hour  a  complete  grasp  of  those  great  international  questions,  nor  to 
the  delicate  and  firm  touches  by  which  he  has  drawn  the  distinctions 
of  character  in  the  eminent  public  servants  to  whom  he  has  referred 
— explaining  what  helped  and  what  hurt  the  interests  committed  to 
their  charge — and  in  which  he  shows  the  skill  of  the  orator ;  but 
what  gave  an  added  charm  was  the  feeling  that  he  spoke  concerning 
diplomatic  action,  being  himself  a  most  famous  master  of  the  art ; 
that  in  that  arm  of  diplomacy,  by  which  a  nation,  through  capable 
servants,  forefends  war  and  controls  peace,  he  himself  had  been 
permitted  to  perform  for  his  country  greater  services  than  in  the 
history  of  the  world  many  men  of  any  age  have  had  an  oppor 
tunity  to  perform  for  their  country.  You  have  referred,  sir,  to 
the  eminent  citizens  of  his  name  who  in  their  respective  genera 
tions  have  served  the  needs  of  the  State.  I  will  allude  to  only 
one  particular  feature  of  the  duties  which  have  fallen  to  those 
statesmen  in  succession.  In  the  line  of  diplomacy  they  have  had 
the  singular  fortune  to  represent  their  country  in  Great  Britain 
in  connection  with  three  important  wars,  under  circumstances  of 
great  asperity  towards  us  in  the  Government  to  which  they  were 
accredited.  After  the  animosities  of  the  Revolutionary  war  had 
ended  so  for  as  to  permit  intercourse  between  this  country  and 
Great  Britain,  Mr.  Adams,  afterwards  President,  represented  the 
country  in  England.  And  after  the  second  war,  when  the  animosi 
ties  evolved  in  that  struggle  were  to  take  only  the  form  of  diplo 
matic  controversy,  John  Quincy  Adams  was  our  representative. 
And  when  we  come  to  the  condition  that  we  have  no  enemies  but 
ourselves,  divided  by  civil  war,  and  when  there  was  a  very  strong 
disposition  on  the  part  of  European  governments  to  take  part  in 
the  contest,  and  very  great  bitterness  of  feeling  was  evoked,  the 
orator  of  this  evening  had  the  fortune  to  represent  the  United  States 
in  England.  And  now,  Mr.  President,  I  think  we  may  also  derive 


51 

this  instruction  from  our  efforts  and  successes  in  vindicating  the 
rights  of  a  nation  to  be  neutral  during  the  wars  of  other  nations, 
that  we  had  earned  a  right,  when  there  came  to  be  a  war  within  our 
own  boundaries,  to  insist  on  neutrality,  being  maintained  by  foreign 
nations  towards  us.  I  venture  to  say,  also,  that,  unless  this  almost 
unimpeachable  record  of  honest,  earnest,  persistent  neutrality  had 
been  our  possession,  we  never  should  have  succeeded  against  the 
vast  interests  and  the  strong  passions  that  were  aroused  against  us 
abroad,  in  holding  foreign  nations  to  that  measure  of  neutrality  that 
was  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  country." 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  presented  to  Mr. 
ADAMS  for  his  able,  eloquent,  and  instructive  address  delivered  this 
evening,  arid  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  for  publication. 

Mr.  WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYAXT  rose,  and  said  : 

"  I  have  listened  with  great  delight  and  deep  interest  to  the 
address  of  our  eminent  friend  from  Boston,  and  wonder  not  that  h;> 
has  so  perfectly  enchained  the  attention  of  the  audience.  I  have 
heard  with  admiration  the  wise  maxims  of  public  policy  which  he 
lias  so  clearly  stated,  and  rendered  luminous  by  so  many  illustra 
tions  from  our  history,  happily  chosen,  woven  into  one  symmetrical 
whole,  and  interfused  with  his  own  individual  thought.  I  have  lis 
tened  with  a  special  interest  to  that  part  of  his  address  which  re 
lated  to  Citizen  Genest — who  had  the  contest  with  Washington,  in 
which  he  was  so  ingloriously  worsted — because  I  knew  the  man,  and 
remember  him  very  vividly.  Some  forty-five  years  since  he  came 
occasionally  to  New  York,  where  I  saw  him.  lie  was  a  tall  man, 
with  a  reddish  wig  and  a  full  round  voice,  speaking  English  in  a 
sort  of  oratorical  manner,  like  a  man  making  a  speech,  but  vory 
woll  for  a  Frenchman.  He  was  a  dreamer  in  some  respects,  and,  I 
remember,  had'a  plan  for  navigating  the  air  in  balloons.  A  pamphlet 
of  his  was  published  a  little  before  the  time  I  knew  him,  entitled, 
'-  Aerial  Navigation,'  illustrated  by  an  engraving  of  a  balloon  shaped 
like  a  fish,  propelled  by  sails  and  guided  by  a  rudder,  in  which  he 
maintained  that  man  could  navigate  the  air  as  well  as  he  could  ivivi- 
gate  the  ocean  in  a  ship. 

cc  When  De  Witt  Clinton  was  Governor  of  this  State,  a  Quaker, 
who  had,  as  the  Scotch  say,  a  bee  in  his  bonnet,  called  on  him,  and 
said  that  he  had  a  project  to  submit  to  him,  in  behalf  of  which  he 
wanted  his  influence.     It  was,  to  gather  the  Jewish  people  from  their 
dispersion,  and  build  for  them  two  cities  in  the  Highlands  of  the 
Hudson,  on  two  mountains.     Thither  he  wanted  them  all  to  go  ;ind 
be  happy.      They  might,  he  added,  make  frequent  visits  to 
jiher,  passing  from  mountain  to  mountain,  and  so  give  inu< 
'heir  time  to  social  intercourse. 

"  Mr.  Cliutoii  listened  to  him  patiently,  and  then  suggested  that 


there  was  one  difficulty  \r.  the  plan.     '  Going  do 
tain  and  going  up  another  would  be  hard  w 
women,  and  be  likely  to  prevent  nine!]  interne 
cities.' 

"  '  Ah,'  said  the  Quaker — Hansofl,  i  was  his  • 

never  thought  of  that.     What  does  thee  advice  in  th 

"  (  There  is  a,  g>  ntleman  at  Troy,"'  answered  Clinton,  c  Tvl;-.  Ge- 
nest,  who  has  a  plan  l>y  v.  difficulty 

obviated.     Suppose  yo:; 

"  The  Quaker  went  ai  enest,  wh< 

his  syste;.-  -ion.  and  assured  him  that 

nothing  to /prevent  the  ihe  two  cities  fK  i 

one  to^tha  other  horizontal!  ;h  the  air. 

"Afterwards  Hanson  mel   with  Mr.  Clmtov. 
4  Wei  I,7  did  y 

I  did,'  answered  Hanson ;  and  then,  assra 
*  but  don't  thec  think  that  friend  G enest 

[e  was  visionary,  and  one  of  hi;- 
:(  to  the  American  people  against  the  fir 
D  to  persevere  in  tho  assertion  of  our  neutrality  in  the  war  be 
tween  France  and  Great  13ri' 

"I  now  second  ti;  •  motion  just  made,  and  am  sure  that  il 
;  with  enthusiasm." 

The  resolution  ^as  adopted  unanimously,  Mid,  after  a  Bti. 
tion  proi'.ounced  by  Rev.  HOWARD  CROSBY,  D.D.,  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  tho  City  of  New  York,  th-  Society  adjoin . 

from  the  Minn 

INER, 
Recording  .S'rcr clary. 


14  DAY  USE 

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LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY—TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

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